SMARTPHONES TO PREVENT BLINDNESS IN KENYA

"Peek" is a new app developed by experts of  London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, that could help thousands of people to get easy access to eye exams. This new app can help in the prevention and diagnose of eye ailments such as glaucoma, cataracts, myopia, and far-sightedness. With the implementation of this new technology there is hope to bring down the number of people who can get blind in the future due the lack of access to eye specialists. 

http://www.gizmag.com

Video: Andrew Bastawrous explains how it works.

Reaching out to people without access to eye diagnoses is crucial because with early detection, blindness can be prevented or cured. Mr. Bastawrous in his TED talk explains how they detected that people in Kenya had more access to cellphones than they did to clean water. This is when his team saw a great opportunity to use the technology of smartphones for something that could give great benefits to the entire community.  The  app and the kit were then developed in London  at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  The kit needed  with the app is portable and easy to use. It allows people to get complex eye tests without the need of having an expensive equipment.

 

 

 

Fighting Malaria With Drones

          Flying robots are being used in island of Borneo - Malaysia to fight malaria. Malaria is an infectious disease that according to The World Health Organization "killed more than 600,000 people last year, mainly children in Africa and Asia". The drones are expected to help researches to map and detect the reasons why the rise in the number of people infected with this virus that spreads from mosquito and macaques to people.

 www.npr.org

How it works?

         According to Mashable.com the drones "create a detailed map, which we can then superimpose or overlay with the human and the macaque movement," Drakeley told Live Science. The movement patterns of both monkeys and humans were derived from GPS data. Locals were asked to carry around GPS tracking devices, while certain macaques were fitted with GPS collars.
The hope is that this GPS data will help the researchers pinpoint where humans and macaques are most likely to interact, and the drones will show the researchers what these areas look like and help them figure out why both species might be drawn to those areas.


        Hopefully the drones can do their job and help hundreds of people infected with the virus not only in Malaysia but among other countries with high rates of this type of infection.